Della's prized possession is her long hair. At the time the story was published it was customary for women to let their hair grow extremely long. They would put it up in a bouffant fashion which came to be called the Gibson Girl style due to the popularity of the magazine illustrations of pretty girls by Charles Dana Gibson. Naturally the long hair required a lot of attention, but most girls and women spent their time at home like Della Young in "The Gift of the Magi." She could spend hours washing, drying, and setting her hair.
Jim's prized possession was a pocket watch he had inherited from his father, who had inherited it from his father. The fact that it was a family heirloom added to the watch's intrinsic value for Jim. Men carried their big pocket watches in a vest pocket with a watch chain and fob, attached. The chain stretched across the vest and had a weight at the other end to protect the watch from accidentally being dropped. If a man should happen to drop his watch the chain would keep it from falling more than a foot or two. The weight, or fob, at the other end would keep the chain from slipping out of the other pocket of the vest. All men who wore suits in those days also wore vests.
Since Della's hair and Jim's watch were their only valuable possessions, it was obviously a great sacrifice for both of them to sell them to buy each other Christmas presents.
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